Noah courting greatness
INDIANAPOLIS -- Joakim Noah loves everything about his famous father, Yannick, except for one thing.
"He's always telling me, 'Calm down, take a deep breath, you're not breathing enough,' " the Florida Gators basketball star said yesterday.
"(So he tells him), 'All you've got to do is just chill out, man, drink a couple of beers, watch the game and let me play.' He stresses me out."
It's really a case of like father, like son. Yannick, as a beloved French Open tennis champion representing France in the 1980s and now as a reggae star back home, always has been a guy doing it his way, a guy who doesn't want to be on the sidelines. Joakim, who exudes energy, passion and charisma like his dad, is much the same way, on and off the court.
Tonight, Yannick will sit in the RCA Dome and watch Joakim play the biggest game of his career in his chosen sport -- basketball -- when the Gators face the UCLA Bruins in the NCAA championship. And maybe one day, maybe even this year if the scouts are right, the 6-foot-11 forward will be a high pick in the NBA draft.
As a 5-year-old in France, Joakim asked his father for a tennis lesson. It didn't last long.
"When I was young, you could feel the pressure in something if you're playing with your father because people want to watch," Joakim said.
"When you're a little kid, you don't want that. You don't want people watching you and comparing you to your father. You just want people to leave you alone and you just want to enjoy it.
"I always see that when I go back to New York and go to the park and play basketball or something and see a father pushing his kid and you can tell the kid is not having fun. He's going to stop playing when he's 14 or 15 ... I don't feel the pressure now because I'm doing my own thing."
And doing it well. While his shot is very awkward (with the release coming from around his chest) and his range is far from great, Noah is an athletic sophomore. He blocked four shots in a semi-final win over George Mason Saturday.
"When I see this atmosphere, I want out of tennis," Yannick said in the winning dressing room Saturday. "I wish I had chosen a team sport. But I think it's too late for me."
Yannick, a native of Cameroon, didn't see his son regularly through childhood. He divorced Joakim's mother, Cecilia, an ex-Miss Sweden, when their son was a young boy. Mother and child moved to New York from France to allow Joakim to develop in basketball while Yannick pursued his music career. But the bond remains as tight as could be and perhaps that's because of their similar upbringings.
When Yannick was 12, the great Arthur Ashe discovered him playing tennis on an African tour and led the up-and-comer to a boarding school in France.
"I know that without Arthur, my father wouldn't be the person he is, and I know I wouldn't be here," Joakim said.
"I'd probably be a little kid in Africa or Sweden ... I just appreciate everything he stands for and everything he did for my family. His legend still lives."
"He's always telling me, 'Calm down, take a deep breath, you're not breathing enough,' " the Florida Gators basketball star said yesterday.
"(So he tells him), 'All you've got to do is just chill out, man, drink a couple of beers, watch the game and let me play.' He stresses me out."
It's really a case of like father, like son. Yannick, as a beloved French Open tennis champion representing France in the 1980s and now as a reggae star back home, always has been a guy doing it his way, a guy who doesn't want to be on the sidelines. Joakim, who exudes energy, passion and charisma like his dad, is much the same way, on and off the court.
Tonight, Yannick will sit in the RCA Dome and watch Joakim play the biggest game of his career in his chosen sport -- basketball -- when the Gators face the UCLA Bruins in the NCAA championship. And maybe one day, maybe even this year if the scouts are right, the 6-foot-11 forward will be a high pick in the NBA draft.
As a 5-year-old in France, Joakim asked his father for a tennis lesson. It didn't last long.
"When I was young, you could feel the pressure in something if you're playing with your father because people want to watch," Joakim said.
"When you're a little kid, you don't want that. You don't want people watching you and comparing you to your father. You just want people to leave you alone and you just want to enjoy it.
"I always see that when I go back to New York and go to the park and play basketball or something and see a father pushing his kid and you can tell the kid is not having fun. He's going to stop playing when he's 14 or 15 ... I don't feel the pressure now because I'm doing my own thing."
And doing it well. While his shot is very awkward (with the release coming from around his chest) and his range is far from great, Noah is an athletic sophomore. He blocked four shots in a semi-final win over George Mason Saturday.
"When I see this atmosphere, I want out of tennis," Yannick said in the winning dressing room Saturday. "I wish I had chosen a team sport. But I think it's too late for me."
Yannick, a native of Cameroon, didn't see his son regularly through childhood. He divorced Joakim's mother, Cecilia, an ex-Miss Sweden, when their son was a young boy. Mother and child moved to New York from France to allow Joakim to develop in basketball while Yannick pursued his music career. But the bond remains as tight as could be and perhaps that's because of their similar upbringings.
When Yannick was 12, the great Arthur Ashe discovered him playing tennis on an African tour and led the up-and-comer to a boarding school in France.
"I know that without Arthur, my father wouldn't be the person he is, and I know I wouldn't be here," Joakim said.
"I'd probably be a little kid in Africa or Sweden ... I just appreciate everything he stands for and everything he did for my family. His legend still lives."
